Bayer AG, the German pharmaceutical giant, continues to grapple with a wave of lawsuits alleging that its popular weed killer Roundup causes cancer. The company has already paid out nearly $11 billion to settle over 100,000 claims, but still faces approximately 54,000 pending cases as of March 2024.
Recent jury verdicts have dealt costly blows to Bayer. In January 2024, a Philadelphia jury awarded $2.25 billion to a plaintiff who claimed Roundup caused his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after using the product for two decades (ref).
In November 2023, a Missouri jury awarded $1.5 billion to three plaintiffs with cancer, though a judge later reduced the amount to $611 million (ref). Bayer has also had some victories, winning several trials in 2022 and 2023.
Safety Concerns & Legal Battles
The lawsuits center around glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup.
While Bayer maintains that the herbicide is safe and not carcinogenic, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans” in 2015 (ref). However, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and European regulators have deemed glyphosate safe when used according to label instructions (ref).
Bayer is pursuing appeals and looking to the U.S. Supreme Court to potentially invalidate state court claims, arguing they should be preempted by federal pesticide laws.
The company is also facing other legal challenges. In 2023, Bayer agreed to pay $6.9 million to resolve claims by the New York Attorney General that it misled consumers about Roundup’s safety (ref).
Uncertain Future for Bayer & Roundup
As Bayer continues to fight the Roundup litigation on multiple fronts, the future remains uncertain for the company and its flagship weed killer.
Bayer is reportedly considering a “Texas Two-Step” bankruptcy filing to resolve the remaining lawsuits (ref). It is also facing pressure from investors and environmental groups over Roundup’s potential ecological impacts on soil microbes, pollinators, and aquatic life.
For now, Bayer vows to defend itself vigorously in court while exploring all options to bring closure to the litigation. But with tens of thousands of cases still pending (54,000 of them) and juries delivering massive verdicts, the Roundup legal battle is far from over.
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Davin is a jack-of-all-trades but has professional training and experience in various home and garden subjects. He leans on other experts when needed and edits and fact-checks all articles.